Continuous Data Protection

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the data modifications made to the primary volume are transferred to the database upon being written to a cache at a primary storage location containing the primary volume.

3. A method according to claim 1, wherein the copying operation is a remote copying operation.

4. A method according to claim 1, wherein the data of the primary volume is asynchronously mirrored to the remote volume located at a remote storage location.

5. A method, according to claim 1, wherein a recovery time is an amount of time needed to transfer all the data modifications in the database corresponding to the remote volume to create up-to-date remote storage volumes.

6. A method according to claim 1, wherein the recovery interval is no more than a predetermined maximum recovery time.

7. A method, according to claim 6, wherein the maximum recovery time is one hour.

9. A method according to claim 1, wherein the copying operation is part of operation of a logical data migration facility operating within a host computer coupled to the primary and remote volumes, and wherein the data modifications are copied from the host computer to the remote volume.

11. A system according to claim 10, wherein the primary storage system includes a cache operative to receive and temporarily store the data modifications from the primary host computer system before the data modifications are written to the primary volume, and wherein the data modifications are transferred from the cache to the database upon being written to the cache.

12. A system according to claim 10, wherein the continuous data protection system is located in a primary host computer system at the primary storage location, the primary host computer system including an application program that utilizes the storage resources provided by the primary volume.

13. A system according to claim 12, wherein the primary host computer system is partitioned into at least two logical partitions (LPARs), one LPAR containing the continuous data protection system and the other LPAR containing the application program.

14. A system according to claim 10, wherein the continuous data protection system is further operative to perform a complete recovery of the primary volume by transferring all the data modifications in the database to the remote volume location to create an up-to-date remote volume and by copying the data from the up-to-date remote storage volume to the primary volume.

16. A computer program product according to claim 15, wherein the data modifications made to the primary volume are transferred to the database upon being written to a cache at the primary storage location.

17. A computer program product according to claim 15, wherein the continuous data protection system further includes the operation of performing a complete recovery of the primary volume by transferring all the data modifications in the database to the remote volume location to create an up-to-date remote volume and copying the data from the up-to-date remote storage volume to the primary volume.

18. A method according to claim 1, wherein, if the restore time is before the time of the latest data modification to the remote volume, writes to the remote volume are undone by replacing previous contents of the remote volume using a stored data pre-image.

19. A system according to claim 10, wherein, if the restore time is before the time of the latest data modification to the remote volume, writes to the remote volume are undone by replacing previous contents of the remote volume using a stored data pre-image.

20. A computer program product according to claim 15, wherein, if the restore time is before the time of the latest data modification to the remote volume, writes to the remote volume are undone by replacing previous contents of the remote volume using a stored data pre-image.